News from the glass and refractory ceramics world

Owens-Illinois, Inc. announced that it has named Vitaliano Torno managing director of O-I Europe, effective immediately. Torno succeeds Erik Bouts as the most senior level executive for O-I in Europe and will report to Andres Lopez, president of glass containers and chief operating officer.

After receiving a request from Sika AG to bid for the entire company, Saint-Gobain SA stated it has no intention of buying the whole of Sika and will stick to its plans to acquire a controlling stake from the Burkard family, according to a Jan. 19 Bloomberg report. Sika has said that the current offer values the family’s holding at an 80-percent premium, while providing no reward for other shareholders.

Nulife Glass, a Manchester, England-based company, will invest $5.9 million to establish its first Virginia operation in the city of Bristol. Nulife provides a complete and sustainable recycling service for all types of cathode ray tube (CRT) glass; this unique solution extracts lead from the leaded glass fraction in CRTs, found in televisions and computer monitors. Virginia successfully competed against Ohio and Pennsylvania for the project, which will create 46 new jobs.

One of the world’s leading refractory materials and services providers, ANH Refractories Company (including A.P. Green Refractories Company, North American Refractories Company, and Harbison-Walker Refractories Company), announced the decision to rebrand itself under the new name of HarbisonWalker International, effective immediately. The decision was made following an exhaustive market research and branding initiative in which one of the company’s legacy brands, Harbison-Walker, returned the highest awareness and positive customer perception of all of the company’s brands.